I'm always fascinated by the annual Inc. 5,000 rankings and featured businesses. This year is no exception. Here are some of the companies (besides, you know, mine) that jumped out at me.

Advertising and Marketing

• Red Ventures – Their differentiator, they say in their video, is that they focus more on analytics than other marketing companies. While it's not new, if they do it well, it's very valuable. Why, though, is it only the business to consumer companies that get this? More service firms should focus on the analysis and outcomes of their marketing.
  
  
• Absorbent, Ink – They're a chatchke company. This company looks no different than the lot of them. (And the lot of them is large.) What makes them special? I don't know except for one point – they're grown 625% over the past three years. Good marketing? Aggressive sales? Strong management? I'm curious to know.
  
  
• Glispa Media, AdBrite, Pepperjam, CPX Interactive, iContact, Rockett Interactive, Salient Mobility, iCrossing, CouponCabin, eZanga, One Technologies, Hydra, Wpromote, MediaWhiz, ProjectLine, Emma, Rimm-Kaufman Group, Sensis, Adlucent, ClickSpeed, Apogee Search, Trancos, Pop Labs, ProfitFuel, and (again) Red Ventures – They all have something to do with online. It's still the new frontier.

Business Services

• Revel Consulting – "Pure Consulting" so they say on their website. What's old is new. There's always room for a good player in a service field.
  
  
• MasterPlans – They write business plans with a "team model" – not a "new market creating" innovation, but more of an innovation of process in a well-worn area. I'm betting a pretty strong sales and marketing effort gets them the revenue. Imagine if they launched and then just waited for referrals? Think they'd be in the Inc. 5000?
  
  
• Infra-Strategy – Seems like software and technology type help for law firms. Law firms have seemed to me to be the last professional services firms to view themselves as competitive businesses, not clubs for the well-educated. (Well, maybe the architects are even a bit more old school.) No clubs anymore. It's manage like a good business or suffer the consequences.

Computers and Electronics

• Nantero – Designs and sells nanotechnology-based semiconductor devices. I don't get it (though I'm sure it's all real small), but it sounds cool.
  
  
• Metrofuser – Remanufactures and resells used printer parts. ZZZzzzZZZZzzz, but there's business to be had everywhere I guess.

Consumer Products

• Skullcandy – Designs headphones. Coolest name on the list so far.
  
  
• FURminator – Can you believe $25 million dollars in revenue for pet-shed-reducing products like brushes and shampoos? And right after I said cool name to Skullcandy, I get FURminated.
  
  
• Bad Boy Enterprises – Says Inc., "Makes an electric all terrain vehicle called Bad Boy Buggie. Designed for hunters, it looks like a golf cart crossed with a monster truck." Every self-respecting man needs to have a Bad Boy Buggie.

Energy

• Oil Chem Technologies – Helps get oil from aging and depleted oil wells. If this is what's growing fast, here's hoping the Chevy Volt takes off. Click here for the most fun in this blog post. Salutations, Brother Biz.
  
  
• Solar Liberty – The savior for Oil Chem Technologies. Let's hope.
  
  
• Blue Sun Biodiesel – Produces biodiesel fuel from soybeans from its own farm. Who knew edamame was so versatile!
  

Financial Services: I almost skipped this section. It all seemed so same-old same-old. But then I just got disappointed in myself for not recognizing elegance in the mundane. Just because a business is not doing something "new" doesn't mean it's not worth mentioning.

Perhaps Integrity Asset Management, First Western Financial, and Engenuity Financial are working overtime to do a good job for clients. Just because their claims to fame seem simple – wealth management – doesn't mean they don't deserve kudos for building their companies faster than the rest of the folks that are busy complaining how hard it is to grow in this "crowded field."

Well, looks like I only made it through the Fs category-wise and this post is already, as an old colleague of mine would say, heavy with goodness. Tune in soon for a continued look at the fascinating list of fast growing companies.